The present invention relates to spinning wheels and, more specifically, to apparatus associated with a spinning wheel to guide the yarn as it is wound on the bobbin.
The recent interest in manual arts and crafts has stimulated new demand for spinning wheels essentially of the same type as those commonly employed in homes in the long distant past in producing yarn from carded wool or flax. The function of the spinning wheel is to twist the animal or plant fibers, initially in an amorphous mass or ball, into a continuous yarn filament which may then be knitted or woven into cloth fabrics or other forms. As the yarn is formed it is passed over a flyer and wound upon a bobbin. The flyer and bobbin are driven at different rotational speeds about the same axis, thereby imparting the twist which produces the continuous yarn filament.
As the yarn passes from the flyer to the bobbin in most conventional wheels it is trained through an eye and over a fixed hook on one of the two flyer arms adjacent the bobbin. This results in the yarn being wound mostly at one axial position on the bobbin. In some wheels a plurality of hooks are fixedly positioned at spaced points along the flyer arm to guide the yarn to the bobbin at several points along its axial length. This requires stopping the wheel, removing the yarn from one hook and placing it on another. In any event, since the hooks are positioned at discrete points along the flyer arm, there is never a continuous distribution of the coiled yarn upon the bobbin. Although many automatic means are available for controlling the level winding of a continuous filament upon a spool or bobbin, it is desirable to maintain the simplicity and completely manual attributes of the spinning wheel.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a spinning wheel wherein the yarn may be guided to the bobbin at any point continuously along its axial length by entirely manually operable means.
Other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.